The banana in me

I am not generalising here but i am just making a point of how "some" communities, social groups and so on are.
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As all knows, due to migration, practically nearly most countries can be considered multicultural nowadays. They will have the Asians, Eurasian, Caucasions, Africans and so on so forth. All with different background and different languages of their own.

Basically this comes ot he point i wish to blog about. The chinese who is yet not a chinese? The asians who can't speak their native tongue. A banana as one is called for the chinese, Yellow on the outside (chinese skin colour) and white ont he inside (the white man's skin). You also have the coconut which is in reference to the Indian who can't speak their native language...you take a guess at the nickname coconut and see the symbolism of the meaning.

Yes it is a disadvantage to only be able to speak one language so to speak...following a stupid PR joke on language. "If you can speak three languages you are trilingual, if you can speak only two then you are bilingual, and if you can only speak one language, well then you are American..."

I found that joke, funny and at the same time offensive. Allow me to elaborate. Firstly it is naturally funny if you would take a look at some of the truths of it, i think in the American society, they dont' really speak anything but English. However it can't be so over here in our asian region. It is a necessity to at least know how to speak more than the English language.
Now what i find offensive is when, the unfortunate Asians who can't speak anything but the English, they are considered wannabes.

Look at it this way, Chinese individual who can only speak English or Chinese. In your own home country if you speak only English some will look down on you, as if you are some kind of traitor to your own culture. Is it the person's fault for being brought up in an english education and surrounded by people and media that speak as such? Some asians diss their own chinese brother or sister, mock them, poke at them, think of them as posh snobs and even worse "wannabe's" of the Western culture for speaking only English.

Granted not all shun the "banana" in the community. But even so, it is sad. Then again it can also be turned around to how the english educated will thne only look for groups and friends that can speak the same language as them. I suppose that will make them look snobby in the end. Why is acceptance of others such a requirement sometimes? Sigh the vice versa of it all.

.. i shall never make it as a journalist as i have no objectivity in my writing... :P which is fine by me.

5 comments:

Who cares? If it is funny, then it's funny. So long as there is no malice behind the laughing, I don't see much problem.

7:27 PM  

hey. it's li yen here. remember me? from youth camp? great bloggie.
keep in touch!

11:02 AM  

then my good fikri u hav probably never goen the look, when u can't speak the language that you ought to.

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